A Better Redford

Robert Redford is, among other deplorable things, an opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline. But comes now Alison Redford, who is no relation, but something more important: she is the premier of the Canadian province of Alberta. And she told the Washington Post yesterday that if the Obama administration rejects the Keystone XL pipeline, it would be a significant thorn in Canadian-U.S. relations. This is fairly tough talk from a nation that, as a one wag once put it, would be likely to make a movie entitled “Strong Disagreement on the Bounty.”

This is significant because I can relate first hand that when we tried to put together panel discussions at AEI about Keystone over the last couple of years, the Canadian embassy was, understandably, reluctant even to attend any event, and absolutely declined every invitation to have someone speak on a panel. That Canadian officials are now speaking publicly and this bluntly–in Washington–shows they are worried that Obama may really be as nuts as his environmental supporters.

From the Post story:

Redford said the debate about Keystone XL has had glaring deficiencies “that are overshadowing the truth.” She tried to put the Canadian oil sands in perspective during a speech at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday by saying the oil sands contribute to just 7 percent of Canada’s greenhouse emissions and less than 0.15 percent of the global total.

She said the oil sands operations produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than the electric power plants in Ohio and Indiana.

I think Canada should threaten to invade. After all, I’m sure because of the sequester, we wouldn’t be able to defend ourselves.